Tundra Swans

On day #4 of my Sunrise Sadhana, I was gifted with many mementos, including this beautiful sunrise over frozen, but thawing, Lake Harriet.

Remarkably, just as on the first day of my Sadhana, just as the sun cleared the trees, a Pileated Woodpecker called again. I am very intrigued to discover if he continues his morning ritual with me!

I was also gifted with the musical call of Tundra Swans as they flew overhead, so close they were I could hear the rushing of their wings, like a stream cascading over rocks.

Here in central Minnesota, Trumpeter Swans are year-round residents, but in the spring Tundra Swans migrate through on their way back to their nesting grounds in the high Arctic. From a distance the calls of a flock of Tundra Swans have been mistaken for the sound of a pack of baying hounds. I first heard this as a young boy, and made that very mistake, while working on the farm where I grew up. Though it was in the fall of the year as the swans were migrating south. Here is a poem I wrote about 20 years about my experience as a boy.

Samadhi

Ears of corn, with paper husks,
Cracked open like lotus petals,
Lie scatter upon the soggy ground.

The shovel scrapes them together,
Scooping up profits
In graceless hurry.

Wild swans call in the distance;
Their hoarse cries
undulating upon the breeze.

I, a small boy, stop from the chore
And glance around,
Fearing an attack of hounds.

Then gaze upwards
At the flapping vees
Branching in the twilight
And discover stillness
With my shovel in my hands.

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6 thoughts on “Tundra Swans”

The poem doesn’t need reworking in my humble opinion. You painted a clear vision in my head; a visceral feeling of space and place and sounds. How remarkable hearing the pileated woodpecker and and a rushing of large wings of swans overhead! What an experience. I have missed your earlier posts and now must go have a good read! Blessings…

Mesmerizing picture, mesmerizing words. Your poem resonates for me. Samadhi is often half “expected” to arrive when one sits to practice and elusive as the mind plays with trying to arrive there. Yet, there is samadhi in those rare moments. The moments when we are unexpectedly graced, almost like being lovingly slapped by stillness with such breathtaking beauty and connection that we instantly become presence itself. I am so grateful for those moments! Thank you for reminding me with your graceful words:)

Cnawan Fahey has walked down countless roads in this lifetime, but has found his greatest fulfillment in serving both as a Wilderness Guide and as a Spiritual Guide.
His personal credo is "Explore the Great Mystery", a credo which he has lived out in his many excursions through a multiplicity of Eco-Systems and Belief-Systems.
Like many other spiritual seekers, Cnawan has found the veils between the spiritual and physical planes to be the most transparent in the natural world. There, Spirit reveals itself in all of it glory.
In his work as a lay minister at an interfaith church, Cnawan has facilitated earth rituals designed to immerse the psyche into the metaphors of the season and to align the soul with the cycles of the Earth.
Cnawan has also led a variety of Eco-Spirituality immersion trips, outings, and workshops, and has taught wilderness survival skills as a form of ritual to connect with the Earth.